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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

I have trained 2 people from scratch, no medical background, no school, nothing and they started ave

Posted By: MT on 2005-08-20
In Reply to: I think 100 may be a lot for brand new newbies. nm - Maybe 50 to 75 in the beginning....

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Did you go to school, or are they training you from scratch?
The only scenario I can see is if you didn't go to school. These days, seems like nobody trains from scratch, but if they did, they'd probably pay a rate like that.
The school that trained you should be the first place
you go for placement assistance. They should be able to tell you what companies seek to hire their graduates. Many schools have employers lined up to hire their graduates because they know those schools turn out job-ready MTs. If your school was one of those, you will have no difficulty finding a job. In any event, your school should be able to tell you what employers have traditionally hired its graduates. Good luck to you.
If the trained professionals at the school can't handle him,
why do you think you'll be able to work and homeschool him at the same time?  I'm not slamming you, but I don't think working and trying to educate your child at the same time is the solution.  Maybe try switching teachers or switching schools.  Have you had him evaluated by his pediatrician or obtained a referral to someone else?  What kind of phone calls are they?  Is he acting up?  Have you asked him WHY he's doing these things?  Kids need to be socialized.  They need to learn how to cope with other people.  They also need to learn that being part of a society means that you're not always the center of attention.  My SIL is going through this with her kid.  He's being an absolute beast because he doesn't like the teacher and she has 19 other kids she needs to pay attention to.  He wants attention, any attention, so he's acting out.  I don't know if your situation is similar to this one or not.  I'm just saying that sometimes sticking it out and finding the root of the problem is better than trying to have your attention focused in two different but important places.
PA's go to school for 5-6 years, longer than RN and are trained
in medicine. Some PA's specialize in the operating room, orthopedics, family medicine, neurosurgery, etc. They do rounds for physicians in the hospital and can write prescriptions. PAs can make up into the mid 100K range in salary and sometimes more.


MA pretty much is a 6-month to 1 year certificate program to work in a doctors office doing vital signs, blood work and paperwork. Nothing major and not a great salary.
If it is, then half the people I trained didn't have it.
Seriously, we all benefit from another point of view occasionally. Sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees. Doesn't mean we don't have common sense at all.
I have tinnitus, so I can either listen to people in the background or the "crickets" in my he
:(
that's why I started school -
I am driving myself crazy here...

I have no social life because even if something is going on, I have to sit here and wait for jobs to download one by one so that I have some kind of income for the day - my boyfriend of course does not want to stay home and just sit, so I end up being home by myself all the time...

My income is so horrible lately that I don't know what I am going to do. Going now to take to the people who financed my houe and explain to them the situation and just hope and pray they will work with me for a couple of months.

I will be graduated from accounting with an Associate's degree in December and hope to high heaven that somebody has some money they want counted then!!!!
School started here today.....sm
I kissed and hugged my daughter and wished her well as the bus drove off! 
hire people with solid longstanding work background with good references; like myself
nm
My high school had police there. It started
about my junior/senior year I think....and cameras everywhere. We also had a security guard patrol the campus, although he was more worried about kids sneaking out than anything.

I'm surprised all schools don't have them. It sure could have diffused the situation a lot faster, possibly saving the girl's life had a police officer already been inside before happening.
I am in the same place you are - I started school last week... nm
x
I started out doing radiology, then went into medical records. SM
It was a hard transition, to go from one speciality to doing them all. ER notes would be a good start, good money. I prefer OP notes myself.
I started part-time in a doc's office while still in high school. sm
That was in 1984. My career just bloomed from there......
BTW...MCATS are for PRE-medical school.
MCATS are for college grads APPLYING for med school, not for RESIDENTs, as ?she? stated.

But MT does not prepare you even for that. Gimme a huge break.


I had 2 years of school for medical
records as they called it then with a semester in transcription. I transcribed office notes for a PT part time while in school and applied for FT in the hospital where my PT worked and basically "trained" on the job. However, this was 27 years ago and they did train you inhouse, and we were on typewriters.
I second the Medical Phrase Index, best reference I had when I started out, NM
z
My daughter already started 1st grade - year-round school. Yippee! (nm)
nm
U.S. offers them medical school at a discount
if they remain in the country and practice in out of the way places for a period of time before returning to their country or to a higher wage earning position within the medical establishment.
many ESLs went to medical school in their own country

and have chosen to immigrate to America..or have gotten an appointment at a hospital here. They have not taken anything away from us. They were able to get visas because of their valuable medical skills. Yes they want to make money, like most of us.  Check out some of the profiles of doctors on hospital web sites. Puts a face to the voice.  Like or it not, it's helpful to many people in this country to visit a doctor who speaks their native language.


Started in-house at a hospital, medical records department, on a typewriter in
1983, earning $6.00/hour, eventually moving up after 7 years to $10.00/hour. All hospital work was then outsourced to a national service in 1986 (beginning of our downfall), went to work for the service and made $2.10/page. Service was bought out by another service, rate changed to $1.90/page. Rates changed again to $0.08/cpl. After many years of experience in all services, found my first account in 1992, charged $.09/cpl/gross lines but blank lines not counted. Business has grown steadily through the years through word of mouth. Now charging $.16/cpl or $25.00/hour or $6.00/page, and having to turn down work at this point. If you have the experience and are detail-oriented, you can find your own accounts eventually like I did. But you have to pay your dues first and be able to transcribe all ESLs accurately. If you learn how to transcribe ESLs well, those doctors are the ones to target for work. I do work an ungodly number of hours, only because I am trying to save at a faster pace for retirement because of all the uncertainty in this line of work.
When the kids started school I wanted a job in my home town. A hospital clerk position (sm)
came open. You started compiling charts, making copies, etc. Then I was promoted after a few months and began learning transcription and did that part of the day. Then a few months later they taught me coding and abstracting and I did that part of the day. It was a great learning experience to learn things from the bottom up. Needless to say, I am an old dog here who has been doing this more than 25 years now.
When the kids started school I wanted a job in my home town. A hospital clerk position (sm)
came open. You started compiling charts, making copies, etc. Then I was promoted after a few months and began learning transcription and did that part of the day. Then a few months later they taught me coding and abstracting and I did that part of the day. It was a great learning experience to learn things from the bottom up. Needless to say, I am an old dog here who has been doing this more than 25 years now.
No - fourth year resident, still in medical school - no MD degree yet. nm
x
POLL: Home School vs. Charter School vs. Public School vs. Priv ate School...
Pros and cons of each too. I have two little ones that will be starting school soon and I would like opinions on all. Thanks in advance! :)
sure i was. i'm making fun of the people who are making a case for background checks, etc
to do medical transcription at home as if they may do something AWFUL with the info they receive. So if you want an invasion of privacy let's REALLY invade it and make sure fat chicks don't transcribe because they are so busy eating they can't get the work done, they mess up the keyboard with food and if they are provided health insurance they will raise the rates for the company sky high because their health risks are higher than others. Then there are the psychological issues overweight people bring to the table. After we eliminate fat people, we can go on to eliminate diabetic people who may have low blood sugar while typing and go into a spell and type the wrong thing. I could go on and on through the process of elimination. How about prescribed medications that may cloud your thinking? So you take Ambien to sleep but you have an Ambien groggy hangover when you are transcribing? Should they transcribe. How about your teens are on your last nerves and you take a Xanax? Should you be allowed to transcribe?
You are the one who started this negativity calling people fools. You are the one
who started this whole discussion.  Now you are surprised someone disputes you?  OMG!  If this wasn't so funny I would be genuinely concerned about your mental health.
I think a lot of people are fooled into thinking medical

Going to be an easy way to make a living.  I have a friend who thought she could just fall right into it, work at home to be with her new baby and make the money that I was making at the time.  It seems glamorous being able to work at home and make good money, some of us make well into 40k.  She was in school for less than 6 months, found a job immediately when she came out, but the tapes were horrible, the company was horrible, and she was constantly asking me, hour upon hour, what this word was, listen to this word for me, I can't find this word.  She was making about 8 dollars a day! Needless to say, less than two months she gave up and is now working in a grocery store again.  This was about three years ago.


So these newbies in the long run will get frustrated not having the knowledge they need in order to make the money to earn a decent living.  I remember I went to school for about a year and a half to learn this stuff.  When I got out, it was a whole new ball game.  The doctors weren't as clean and clear as on the practice tapes we did in school for three months, I had to work in house in an emergency room so there were things constantly going on around me that made the dictation even harder to understand, and I believe it was about well over two years into MT'ing before I knew "NIN gap" was in fact "anion" gap.  So these ladies have no idea what they are in for, and the only people left to do VR in a few years will be us seasoned MTs who have paid our dues already. 


I really wish people would not ask for medical advice on this website. Do we have to go through thi
Please have common sense and see a doctor!
I make everything from scratch

From the pizza crust to the pizza sauce.  The only thing I buy to make the pizza is a cheap block of cheese and grate it myself.  I can make two 16" cheese pizzas for less than five bucks.


I make cookies, brownies, fudge, coffee cake, etc., for the sweet tooth people in the bunch.


The ingredients cost at first, but they last a lot longer than a package of Oreos or having Dominos deliver.


Sure it takes time, but you can put a timer in your office and get up and stretch (like we should. . .yeah right) and then go check on your brownies. 


Took me a while, but I pretty much have it down to a science right now and I save a good bit of change doing that for hungry teens.


IRS and medical records are other people's business. It's the way of the world, 2006
There is nothing you can hide. Insurance companies have your info and share it with other insurance companies. Medical records are passed from doctor's office to doctor's office, secretary to secretary, MT to MT.
so people who are frustrated doctors can give medical advice.
so
Uh-oh! I hope it's not a Scratch-N-Sniff! LOL!
x
Actually, it is retranscribing from scratch, because the software is so crappy. Same work, sm

less money.


1 main and 1 backup. You can't get good speed going with too many accounts. Scratch that crap! nm
,
I did that with 2 kids with time mgmt and a high school girl who babysat 3 days a week after school
nm
The cost of running a private school or any school is expensive....
Why do you think public schools are so run down and can't find good teachers?  Because the government and people to not put forth the effort or $$$$ to improve the educational system.
if you live among trashy people, low income people, people w/o goals or direction,
content to just get by, you by default become a part of a group. "people" have decided to group trailer people as trash. that is because there are enough people in that group to earn the title and even if you aren't trash, you are categorized by others. did i think i was trash in lower class neighborhood surrounded by people who drank and fought all weekend? no but i knew i wasn't staying and did not try to pretend that all the fools in the neighborhood were just nice folks who ended up where they were because high horse snobs deemed their neighborhood low class. people for the most part live exactly where they belong because they don't want to educate themselves, they don't mind "trash" around them and they don't want to be bothered trying just a bit hard to extract themselves from that world. they justify everything to themselves i guess saying everyone who doesn't like their lifestyle is a snob and the comedians (Jeff Foxworthy/Chris Rock, etc) who make fun of them are just ill-informed.

As for me, I fought hard to get out and don't even want to look back. It amazes me people stay for generations.
I would buy new a Dorland's Medical Dictionary, Stedmans Medical and Surgical Equipment...SM

and Tessier's The Surgical Word Book, 3rd edition.  Books you could buy used I would say would be Stedman's Pathology and Lab Medicine and Cardiology/Pulmonary word book.  These are all the books I use the most during my day.  You could buy other speciality word books as you need them and could probably go used with those.


I wouldn't bother with buying a drug book, new editions come out every year and I just stick to the FDA website and RXList as my drug references.


Also FYI, not a book, but I use my Stedman's Electronic Medical Dictationary a lot.  It's easier to open the program than it is to pick up a huge 30-pound dictionary.


thats exactly why I did this. I trained sm
in a hospital when I first started in 1979 but as soon as I could I went home to work. I tried the hospital "thing again" for about five years but I hated it. I just needed the insurance at the time. I prefer being at home not dealing with the politics and the back-biting. I don't think there is anything wrong with that at all. I figure I am secure enough in myself to ignore the comments about how we at home don't have to work, can do what we want, etc. etc. Anyone who has done this knows better anyway!
They still have to be trained how to
QA/grade, give proper feedback, use the QA software, etc., because as I said, it's a completely different job. When having an opening for a QA, why not take applications from internal MTs, if any are interested which is rare because MTing pays better, as well as taking applications from experienced QAs? I don't have a problem with that, only when they hire exclusively from within, forcing experienced QAs to MT again & work their way to QA again. That's just SILLY.
LOL, I trained on the job also in the
early 1980s. As for hospitals, some are taking their transcription back. A MAJOR hospital chain in my town used the Q, but at the end of the contrast 2 years ago, they totally took all their transcription back and hired in-house and at-home MTs (one of my friends works for them).
The School of Hard Knocks is the best MT school
n
Medical Transcription In The Era Of Electronic Medical Records
EMR has revolutionized the healthcare industry in recent times. Many experts felt that EMR & Voice Recognition would totally replace Medical Transcription - however; the industry soon realized that transcription has certain advantages over point & click charting and many physicians preferred to dictate notes rather than document the data at the point of care themselves.
I'm 36, been doing this 26 years, trained on the job.. nm
.
50, trained by VA OJT in 1988.sm

Started out doing autopsy reports, then went to "the typing pool" (acute MT) as we used to be called, came home in 1995, been here since.


Honestly, they need to be trained.
Mine had the same mentality when we first got together.  I refused to do it.  If he scattered dirty laundry, I left it there.  If he didn't put his dishes in the sink, they sat out.  I'm not anyone's slave.  Also, if they expect the woment to work, they need to share in the housework, child care, and finances.
they seem to be trained to dictate that way.
I worked at a hospital that had a podiatric residency program, and the residents were often required to do the dictation for operations performed by others.  Obviously the long format wasn't something the resident made up on his own, it was something they had been trained to do.  Other doctors tend to stumble into dictation without much in the way of instruction.
You weren't trained
You weren't trained, which is why you couldn't earn a living doing MT.  A lot of people make that mistake, think they just sit down at a computer and type what they hear, then they wonder why they can't make any money. I'm sure if you had gone to school to learn MT, you would have been great at it. After all, you didn't teach yourself to become an RN, right?
My son was three when he was potty trained.
I did similar things.

I don't know if you are already doing this or not, but the best thing I have found to potty train my kids is.....stop buying diapers/pull-ups. If you run out and you don't buy anymore then you really don't have a choice but to be consistent. Having nine pair of underwear on hand is what is recommended.

You can by the the toilet targets online for 5.95. They ARE helpful in making it a game. I always used the whole "Daddy is a big boy, don't you want to be like Daddy?" (works sometimes)

Make it a routine. Go every so often (timer), use the bathroom, flush the toilet, shut the lid, wash your hands, turn the light off, get your reward. Be consistent.

I have four girls and only one boy and my girls were trained by 2 years old with EASE - boys are much more difficult, mine anyway.
trained fingers
Makes me think of what it is like for your fingers to "know" a telephone number but for the life of me I couldn't tell you what it is--I'd have to dial it for you.
Not true....I trained 3 ...sm
from scratch.  All were very good, probably better than me!  I was just starting out on my own and had reached the point I needed help.  Taught them one at a time.  Just set them up right next to me and gave them the easiest stuff I had.  We both worked at the same time, and I was right there to answer questions and listen when they had trouble.